The State of California pension fund, CalPERS, announced today that it has divested itself from $20 million worth of shares in two Russian companies in response to neo-Nazi attacks against gays in that country, according to the Financial Times.

Pavel Durov, founder of VK.com, a Russian social media site used by Russian ultra-nationalists to broadcast their gay-bashing videos and to execute their anti-gay attacks.

VKontakte, or VK.com, was founded and run by Pavel Durov, who recently left the company in order to work on his new venture, Instagram. During Durov’s reign, little was done to address the fact that the Russian neo-Nazis were using VK.com to organize and publicize their kidnappings, including posting “help wanted” ads seeking fellow kidnappers and apartments in which to commit the crimes.

CalPERS sold stakes in VKontakte affiliates Mail.ru, an Internet portal, and mobile phone company MegaFon. Both companies are controlled by Russian oligarch and friend of Putin Alisher Usmanov, who also controls VKontakte.

VKontakte’s CEO Dmitry Sergeev told the Financial Times that aiding and abetting the kidnapping and torture of gays, Jews and blacks is apparently considered “free speech” in Russia:

Dmitry Sergeev, VKontakte’s chief operating officer, said he was surprised by Calpers’ decision.

Mr Sergeev said: “We remain committed to ensure protection of all VK users from discrimination based on sex, ethnicity or lifestyle. We are committed to free speech and open communication and are always ready for the dialogue with the public including VK.com users and advocacy groups.”

Ukrainian TV star kidnapped and tortured by Russian neo-Nazi gangs. The video of his abduction was then published on Putin-ally-controlled VK.com.

Apparently in response to concerns about the neo-Nazi organizing taking place on its network, VKontakte banned foreign IP addresses from viewing some of the neo-Nazi hate on its site, while leaving the content up for Russian audiences (I confirmed with Russians in Russia that they could still the content that was blocked for those coming from America and Europe). In other words, VK.com didn’t remove the neo-Nazi kidnapping videos and the neo-Nazi help-wanted ads, they simply blocked foreign advocates from being able to see, and complain about, the neo-Nazi content.

So, in fact, VK.com was willing to restrict free speech when said speech might serve as evidence of the company’s tacit complicity in a crime. VKontakte was not, however, willing to remove the actual complicity — they were only willing to remove human rights advocates’ ability to see and complain about it.

A young gay South African is attacked by Russian vigilantes, who filmed it and posted the video online.

Back in March of 2014, at the request of CalPERS, AMERICAblog prepared a 23-page dossier detailing the extent of the neo-Nazi organizing still taking place at VKontakte. At that time, there were 3,690 videos on VKontakte published by the neo-Nazi kidnapping group “Occupy Pedophilia.” Today, May 16, 2014, there are 3,975 such videos – nearly a 10% increase. Most of the videos were taken during, and show, the abduction and torture of young gay Russians.

The Russian government for its part continues to deny that the kidnappings are even taking place, though at the same time the government issued a statement several months that appears to defend the neo-Nazi groups.

The organization, Occupy Pedophilia, has 30 affiliates across Russia, and a number of branches under similar names. It is headed by Maxim Martsinkevich, who awaits trial on an unrelated matter (the Russians refuse to charge him with any of the 1,500 kidnappings his group alleges to have committed).

Martsinkevich’s putative deputy in the organization, Ekaterina Zigunova (aka Logunova), remains free, as does her right-hand man, Daniil Konovalov, and every other co-conspirator. Mind you, most of the videos show the kidnappers’ faces, and their home towns, so it’s not terribly difficult finding out who they are. But they know that under Vladimir Putin, the Russian government has no intention of ever interfering with the neo-Nazi’s work, which conveniently complements Putin’s own.

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John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.